Max Verstappen had few complaints after making his way upto third having sat 10th at one stage during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
As the only top-six runner on the Hypersoft tyre, the Dutchman was expected to be a car to watch in the early laps. He would be, but only for making moves on the two Force India’s as a bad start saw him slip down the order.
“It was not an easy race,” Verstappen admitted. “I had a problem off the start, actually the launch was good but then my engine went into like a safety program and I had it again in the restart afterwards.”
Once in clear air Max would have great pace, however, bringing him back into contention and after jumping teammate Daniel Ricciardo in the pit-stops before passing Valtteri Bottas in a bold move, his path to an 11th podium was clear.
“It was not easy but we managed to go back into a good position and put a bit of pressure on the guys ahead,” he continued.
“I think that we stopped quite early but I had to because I was on the Hypers, then we managed to keep the Supersoft alive and I had a good pace but the last few laps were not easy.”
The difficulty near the end came from an unexpected source as, for the second race running, Verstappen had a moment with a backmarker.
“There was a Toro Rosso leaking oil onto my helmet so I couldn’t really see where I was going but in the end, I was really happy with third,” he concluded, with that Toro Rosso being his future teammate Pierre Gasly who stopped with engine issues.
After Kimi Raikkonen’s early retirement, Max’s third place saw him fall just two points shy of third in the Drivers’ Championship though he would jump Bottas for fourth.